1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method and an image processing program, and more specifically to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method and an image processing program suitable for selecting a desired image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image capturing apparatuses (electronic camera, etc.) which electronically capture an image have been widely used. For such electronic cameras, models that have good portability and can image a great deal of images have been developed. With such electronic cameras, a user can easily image an image. If images are easily captured in such a way, a device which records images such as a personal computer (PC) of a user stores a great deal of images. Accordingly, such an image capturing apparatus has a problem in that a user has a hard time in selecting images to save or print.
A technique which automatically sorts images has been proposed for solving the abovementioned problem. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-256244 discloses an image data sorting device which sorts image data by evaluating relationship between respective pieces of image data for characteristic quantity extracted from a plurality pieces of image data and clustering events represented by the characteristic quantity of each piece of the image data based on the evaluation result. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-199028 discloses an electronic album device which sorts a plurality pieces of image data into groups for respective categories and manages the plurality pieces of image data by converting imaged images into electrically represented image data and recording the image data.